Shanghai Shenhua will take their battle against star striker Didier Drogba's move to Turkish side Galatasaray to football's governing body Fifa this week, mainland reports said yesterday.

The Ivory Coast striker left the club in acrimonious circumstances last month, with Shanghai saying he had breached his contract.

"We now have evidence which we believe will give Shenhua a 99 per cent chance of winning a lawsuit at Fifa," a lawyer acting for the club told the Sina web portal.

The anonymous source from "Shenhua's legal team" said the relevant documents would be submitted to the sport's governing body tomorrow.

The report said Shenhua would provide evidence that Drogba breached his contract and that Galatasaray had violated Fifa rules by luring a player away from his current club. Shenhua declined to comment.

Mainland media previously reported that Drogba had asked Fifa to nullify his contract after the club defaulted on payments following a shareholder dispute dating to September.

Drogba came off the bench to score five minutes into his Galatasaray debut last Friday, a 2-1 victory over the Turkish league's bottom club Akhisar.

The former Chelsea striker signed an 18-month, €10 million (HK$103.5 million) deal with the Istanbul side, who are due to play German side Schalke 04 tomorrow in the last 16 of the Uefa Champions League.

Drogba had signed a 21/2-year deal with Shanghai in June last year on a reported salary of US$300,000 a week.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as Shanghai will take Drogba case to Fifa